in this wasteland / there's a crack in the door filled with light

[raven]

I keep wanting to make a giant post of What I'm Reading and What I'm Watching, but I... don't. I blame my job, which is hard, right now, in both senses of the word. (A passing word from a distant colleague, last week, delivered with austere kindness: "You can try, but you can't hold back the tide.")

Quite.

So I'm reading and watching stuff and hanging out with friends and the part of my brain that writes has the lights turned out but that's okay, for now. I'm trying to be kind to self. Last weekend I went to vidukon_cardiff and while I had a lovely time, I don't actually have a lot to say about it. I hung out with people I love; I drank cocktails with double cream; I enjoyed Welsh bilingual signage; Iwatched some vids; I came home happy. I enjoyed a lot of the premiering vids - two of my favourites were "Uptown Funk" by such_heights (it's Parks and Recreation, by which I mean, it's the show, it's my show) and "Touch The Sky" by cosmic_llin, a delightful multifandom vid about young girls and women - but the one that really, really stayed with me is "Wasteland", by amnisias. This is a simple, linear vid for the ITV show, Grantchester, to a lovely slice of bourbon-laced Americana (which is a lot more relevant to a sleepy drama about an English parish priest in the 1950s than you might think, at first). It's a beautiful vid and as a result of it I have watched the entire show in the last few days and it's made me so uncomplicatedly happy, so I'm here to tell you about it.

Show! It's basically a step-by-step of things that are relevant to my interests, but, y'know, my interests are some of your interests, so. It's 1953 in a small village just south of Cambridge. Sidney Chambers, who is the Anglican parish priest for Grantchester, suffers from a surfeit of people telling him things. Which is how he ends up looking into the alleged murder of one of his parishioners; and then how he ends up investigating murders in general with one of the local policemen, Geordie Keating.

And that's... kind of it? Not a lot happens. They drink pints in pubs. They investigate crimes in a low-key sort of a way. They live in the perfect eternal summer I remember from being an undergraduate; this is a Cambridge where it never rains. Sidney has a piano in his front garden for a while and plays it very badly. They play cricket and go punting. Everything is starkly and bleakly and vividly beautiful. They drink more pints. Nothing happens. And of course I love it desperately. I love the writing style and wish I could write like it: everything is interstitial, everything happens in the cracks. I love the characters. Other than Sidney and Geordie, there's Mrs Maguire, Sidney's hilariously disapproving housekeeper; also his best friend, Amanda, whom he's not so secretly in love with; also a full chorus of villagers, policemen, and jazz musicians. By episode 2 they've gained a puppy and a live-in queer curate called Leonard, who's an adorable heap of awkward, and everything is delightful and they all love each other a lot.

And - because I did mention this is the kind of show I like - it's terribly sad, but in a distant and English sort of way. The point of the show is the post-war landscape, both literal and internal: so one the one hand there are these beautiful, sparse, heartbreaking shots of the Cambridgeshire countryside, all those fields unfolding towards the sky. (And in some ways that's the world I know - the flat water and rushes, the same landscape that I rattle through every morning on my way to London - and then in one episode, Sidney has a run-in with a local property developer, and I sat up straight, because they're talking about council houses, northern estates; they're talking about building the house I live in.)

So that's part of it, the literal post-war landscape at the beginning of fifty years of change, and on the other hand there's the other one, the internal one - so ghosts of race and especially class inhabit the cosy little mysteries, harbinging change - and Sidney is charming and charismatic and kind, and rather seriously depressed and life, as with all such things, goes on. This is my hands-down favourite thing about this show: it's the carefully compassionate way it's depicted, the way Sidney isn't to blame for his depression and those around him love him; but at the same time, he hurts people very badly sometimes and it doesn't let him off the hook for that. (And always with such wit and humour. Leonard says some kind things to Sidney about his black dog - and hastily clarifies he doesn't mean his actual black dog, who is looking up at him with adoring eyes and a wagging tail.) And in the end, it's always in the background - as one hopes it ought to be - of all the beautiful things. I guess it's a very me sort of show? But, you know, you love what you love. It's sad and it's hopeful and I really do love it a lot.

Wow that is quite a lot more than I meant to write. Er: in brief, it's a beautiful show, the writing is beautiful, the scenery porn is beautiful, the cast is preternaturally beautiful (bisexualists of the world unite) and if you spend the first two episodes wondering where you've seen James Norton before, the answer is possibly on his knees before the Empress of Blandings, yelling, "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey!"

In the meantime: it's 9.48pm and there's enough light in the sky to read by. I'm still here.

Comments

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

Oh my, your synopsis of the show is just so good - when I recced the show way back I really struggled to put into words why I loved it so much, since it also would be really easy to be all cynical about the premise and set-up. But you just captured it all so beautifully.

everything is interstitial, everything happens in the cracks

You just put your finger on it with this phrase - in this show the most significant character moments happen 'in the cracks', they are quiet, under-played and not dwelt on, and life just carries on.

it's terribly sad, but in a distant (...) sort of way.

Just that. And a lot of the sadness comes from the juxtaposition of the external beauty and peacefulness in the landscape and gaiety and hopefulness of the post-war period with the internal turmoil and suffering of the characters. And it's not just Sid but pretty much the whole cast, right down to the bit players. Everybody is struggling with an assortment of losses, identity issues or societal pressures. But they all soldier on, in the best way they know how. By being gruff, drinking too much, becoming a vicar or curate or getting married. And the show manages to be sad and hopeful in equal meassures, and to connect those two sides of the story without it feeling forced or artificial. A lot of this is down to cutting down on dialog and exposition and relying on the actors to convey emotions - perfect 'show don't tell'

And then the show weaves all the societal blind spots of the 50's into the story - but has the courage to stick to the prevailing period attitude and not to white-white wash charaters by letting them be uber-liberal (for the time) and PC. Racism, homophobia and class devision are an accepted part of the fabric of life, and even if some characters occassionaly try to speak up, the argument is mostly a personal, humanitaritan one rather than liberal outrage based on 21st century understanding of equality. This makes for occassional uncomfortable viewing (in the good way, in my opinion), but adds to the rich fabric of the characters and the show's universe.

Which neatly lead onto he hurts people very badly sometimes and [the show] doesn't let him off the hook for that.

This! And it does not just apply to Sid - all these characters are multi-dimentional, they all behave badly at one point or another, and although we can often feel sympathetic to a point the show does not absolve charaters for their imperfections and hurtful behaviour.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Aww, hey, you might have struggled with words, but it's all there in the vid that got me here! So thank you again and I'm really pleased you enjoyed this post. And I really think you're spot on about the way the show uses its medium, does so little with dialogue and exposition and so much with just what we see. I love how you're left to figure out the matter of Sidney's alcoholism the same way Sidney does himself - a collection of clues, but no great melodramatic signposts - and in so doing, it's more real than it'd be if they just told you about it. I just... *hands* It's so good, and so rare and real. I also think your point about characters doing things for personal morality is a great insight - Sidney's kindness to all living things is hard-won, and I'd argue that Leonard's is even harder-won, in some ways; as he says, he does know that people think he's ridiculous, and continues to be himself regardless.

Also, I walked down to Grantchester this weekend and happened to be poking around the church of St Andrew and St Mary when I got this comment, which I thought might amuse you. :)

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

It amuses and makes me jealous in equal meassures, I must admit. That must be so nice to walk around the place and take notes. And the weather at the moment is the perfect 'enless summer' type whether they have on the show - actually, they are shooting season 2 at the moment - did you see any evidence of that? Though I guess most of the interior shots are done all over the country, and only the external shoots in Grantchester.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It was actually quite grey in Grantchester the other day! But the place is gorgeous whatever the weather. I didn't spot any filming going on, but I suppose Sunday is the one day you wouldn't film in a working church. (Though I suppose if they did all their outdoor shots in a very short timeframe, that explains the endless summer!) I must keep an eye out for it in Cambridge, as well - I can't believe I missed them closing King's Parade, holy cow.

[amnisias.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I missed them closing King's Parade

Yes, that must have been a major op, not just closing it down, but also to make it look like the 50's.